e336. So, Why Pop Culture?

In all the years we’ve been doing this show we’ve worked under a very basic assumption: Everyone involved as a host, guest, or listener presumes that the pseudo academic discussion of popular culture (with drinking and swearing) is an important activity. We certainly feel that way, and chances are if you’re a regular listener you…

e332. The 4th Wall Bounce: The Reflexivity of Media and Culture

So here’s a weird question for you… in a TV show like Batman, do the regular people know the phrase “dynamic duo?” In the movie Amazing Spider-Man Peter Parker uses the theme song from the 1960s Spider-man cartoon as his ringtone… but what song does he think that is? If two TV shows cross over,…

e330. The Immortal Legacy: Aging Actors and Endless Franchises

If you’re a fan of geek media, you likely noticed two important things from Marvel Studios last week. One was the long-awaited release of Deadpool & Wolverine. The second was the San Diego Comicon surprise that Robert Downey Jr. would be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to take on the role of Dr. Doom.…

e324. Unpacking Bridgerton Season 3: Penelope, Queerness, and Fandom Reactions

It’s that time again… we’ve had another year of Bridgerton and of course we had to analyze it. Think about it, it’s a show about British regency society. In some ways this might be the most cultured and sophisticated thing we ever do. Also, there’s a lot of sex. On this week’s episode of VoxPopcast,…

e319. X-men ’97 Revisited: Superheroes, Sacrifices, & Saturday Mornings

There’s an argument that the current wave of superhero dominated content that pervades popular media doesn’t begin with the MCU but with X-men the Animated Series, a cartoon that ran from 1992-1997 and is a formative touchstone for many millennial viewers who have come of age today. This argument may be somewhat backed up by…

CFC: Is Rebooting a Film Worse Than Covering a Song?

From Mav: So a few weeks ago I made a random observation on Facebook about the upcoming Crow movie. Basically, I argued that if you were really and truly upset with the redesign of Eric Draven then you were being old and out of touch. Because the weird androgynous goth mime that barely made sense…

e313. PCA2024: Adapting X-Men

On this week’s special epsiode we take one last look at this year’s Popular Culture Association conference in Chicago with a look at papers from one of the panels in the Comics Studies group. Mav is joined by Joseph and John Darowski who will be appearing with him in the upcoming book Adapting X-men from…

e305. Dark Academia: a Deep Dive into Murder, Mystery & Midterms

Have you seen that new Dark Academia show about the mysterious elite school for special kids where there’s the one kid who doesn’t seem to belong even amongst the other weirdos at the weird school and there’s some sinister plot going on that no one is talking about but it’s probably people being murdered and…

e303. Our Lives in Pop Culture

It could be argued that the pop culture that you absorb makes you who you are. That’s certainly true of the hosts of this show. After all, it’s a show about pop culture hosted by pop culture nerds. So obviously we got this way… somehow! But how? On today’s show Mav takes Hannah and Wayne…

e299. Things You Missed in 2023!

Happy New Year! If you listen to podcasts which you must if you’re listening to this, then you probably know by now that they way people end a year in their podcasts is typically to do a “best of the year” in whatever field or genre that they happen to cover. You’ve probably listened to…